US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to America's intelligence chiefs urging them to take Donald Trump to school after he insulted them.

Mr. Schumer separately tweeted that it is "past time for US Intelligence Community leaders to stage an intervention" with Trump.  In the letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Schumer wrote that CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray "insist on an immediate meeting" with Trump and "educate him" about "the facts and raw intelligence underlying the Intelligence Community assessments".

Trump sparked bipartisan outrage by lashing out at Coats and Haspell, who contradicted him on several key points in their testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.  They said that, despite what Trump has said:  The so-called Islamic State is not defeated; Iran is not a nuclear threat; but North Korea is, because of is active nuclear weapons program. 

Trump mocked them on Wednesday:  "The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran.  They are wrong!" he tweeted, "Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!"

It's simply unprecedented for a White House occupant to trash his intelligence chiefs in public, something that could undermine US influence with is allies and the rest of the world.  Schumer late Wednesday said the Intel chiefs had to get the situation under control.

"You cannot allow the President's ill-advised and unwarranted comments today to stand," Schumer wrote.  "He is putting you and your colleagues in an untenable position and hurting the national interest in the process.  You must find a way to make that clear to him," Schumer wrote in the letter.

Earlier, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump is "undermining" the intelligence community; meanwhile, South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune told reporters that he would "prefer the president would stay off Twitter."